> By the way, the 'preprint idea' was born by Enrico Fermi in 1932,
> a famous physicist, who boosted his career by deciding to send copies
> of his documents by mail to all relevant to his work laboratories in the
> world. That was very well received.

This is a doubtful claim. I wouldn't nominate Fermi
before considering the 17th century French Friar,
Father Marin Mersenne who distributed scientific
communications to an equally select mailing list.

James Burke summarized, "In 1644 Torricelli wrote to
a colleague and friend in Rome, Michelangelo Ricci,
to explain an experiment ... "Ricci, realizing that
current Church opinion in Rome would not take kindly
..., made a copy of Torricelli's letter and sent it
to a priest in Paris, Father Marin Mersenne. This man
was an extraordinary Minorite friar who ran a kind of
scientific salon, to which came many of the more
radical thinkers of the day. Following his habit of
copying letters he received and circulating them among
his many scientific contacts throughout Europe, Mersenne
became known as the postbox of Europe. It was precisely
for this reason that the copy of Torricelli's letter
ended up in Mersenne's hands, and sure enough the first
thing he did was send another copy of it to a friend
who was interested in the same problem...." [Connections.
Boston: Little Brown. 1978. Reprint with new introduction
1995. ISBN 0-316-11672-6. p. 74]